Moore v. Missouri Friends of Wabash Trace Nature Trail, Inc.

• Decision Date: 27 April 1999
• Docket Number: No. WD,WD
• Citation: 991 S.W.2d 681
• Parties: Danny MOORE and E.R. Hutcheson Respondents, v. MISSOURI FRIENDS OF THE WABASH TRACE NATURE TRAIL, INC., Appellants. 55781.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

Page 681

991 S.W.2d 681

Danny MOORE and E.R. Hutcheson Respondents, v. MISSOURI FRIENDS OF THE WABASH TRACE NATURE TRAIL, INC., Appellants.

No. WD 55781.

Missouri Court of Appeals,

Western District.

April 27, 1999.

Rochelle B. Ecker, Kansas City, for appellants.

Jerold L. Drake, Grant City, for respondents.

Before Chief Judge PATRICIA BRECKENRIDGE, Presiding, Judge JAMES M. SMART, and Judge LAURA DENVIR STITH.

LAURA DENVIR STITH, Judge.

Defendant-Appellant, Missouri Friends of the Wabash Trace Nature Trail, Inc. ("Wabash Trace"), appeals from a grant of summary judgment entered on March 27, 1998, quieting title to a 100-foot strip and two 50-foot strips of land in favor of Plaintiff-Respondents, Danny Moore and E.R. Hutcheson, respectively. Wabash Trace claims the trial court erred in granting summary judgment against it because it obtained title through a quitclaim deed conveying ownership from the Norfolk and Western Railway ("Norfolk") and because it and its predecessors in title acquired title to the land through adverse possession.

We find that the three deeds at issue here restricted the quantum of interest conveyed to the railroad, and did not convey that interest for valuable consideration, and thus the railroad did not receive title to the land in fee simple absolute, but rather received an easement to use the land until such time as the use for railroad purposes was abandoned. Once abandoned, title to the tracts reverted to the Respondents as the adjacent landowners. We also find that Wabash Trace's adverse possession could not have started until the land was abandoned for all railroad purposes in October 1986, and since the property owners asserted their rights of ownership by filing suit in May 1996, Wabash Trace is unable to establish the requisite 10 year period for adverse claim to the land. Judgment affirmed.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

On December 27, 1878, F.A. and L.M. Rogers granted an interest in a 100-foot strip of property to the Council Bluffs Railroad by a handwritten deed. The deed stated it was given "in consideration of the sum of one dollar and the building maintaining and operating of a railroad by the said party of the second part, its successors and assigns...." The deed restricted use of the tract to railroad purposes, providing that the grantee railroad would have rights in the property, "so long as tis used for Rail Road purposes...." Respondent E.R. Hutcheson currently owns the land adjoining this strip of land, and alleges that, for reasons set out below, the strip deeded to the railroad for railroad purposes reverted to him once use of the strip for railroad purposes ceased. ¹

In January 1879, both James and Loveday Bullock, and Charles Bullock, also granted interests in 100-foot strips of their land to the Council Bluffs Railroad, "[f]or the consideration of Five Dollars to [the grantors] in hand paid and the building of a ... wire fence ... on each side of the rail road track." Both of these deeds expressly provided that the conveyance was for purposes of a railroad, and "that in case the construction of said road shall be abandoned or not pass over said land, the right to said land is to revert to the undersigned." Respondent Danny Moore is the current owner of land adjoining parts of the strips of land described in these deeds, and alleges that, for reasons set out below, the strips reverted to him once use of the strips for railroad purposes ceased. ²

From the period after these deeds were granted until early 1984, the Council Bluffs and St. Louis Railway Company, the Wabash Railroad, and, finally, the Norfolk and Western Railway Company, operated trains over the line which ran through this land. By the early 1980's, rail transportation over the line had become unprofitable. Consequently, on June 30, 1983, Norfolk and Wabash jointly applied to the Interstate Commerce Commission ("ICC") for permission to abandon the track and discontinue service for 222.3 miles of the railroad, including the part of the line in Atchison County which is at issue here. The ICC granted this request, which became effective on December 10, 1983, and gave the railroad one year to complete its abandonment. It did so in February 1984. That same month, the Northern Missouri Railroad began operating trains over the tracks between Brunswick, Missouri and Blanchard, Iowa, including the railroad right-of-way in Atchison County. This "short-line" railroad operated from February 1984 to September 1986, when the Northern Missouri Railroad discontinued its service, pursuant to permission from the ICC, because of financial problems. Norfolk removed the track and ties from this entire part of the rail corridor, including from the strips of land in question here, during the second half of 1988, completing that work by December 1988.

On June 27, 1995, Norfolk ³ executed a quitclaim deed to Wabash Trace, giving it its interest in the right-of-way, "SUBJECT, to any conditions, restrictions, reservations, licenses, leases and easements, whether or not of record." The consideration given for these deeds is unknown; the total consideration given for a quitclaim deed by Wabash Trace for this land and other land, including land located in Nodaway County, Missouri, totaled $50,000.00. The purpose for the purchase was to extend to Maryville, Missouri a hiking and biking trail which presently runs from Council Bluffs, Iowa, south to the Iowa-Missouri line. After Wabash Trace received this quitclaim deed, its members began to clear parts of the corridor of brush and weeds and to establish a roadbed over parts of the "abandoned" right-of-way.

On May 31, 1996, Respondents Hutcheson and Moore filed this action to quiet title in the disputed tracts of land that adjoin their property. Wabash Trace answered and requested that it be declared the owner in fee simple absolute of the disputed tract. After discovery, Respondents filed a motion for summary judgment, which was sustained by the trial court on March 27, 1998. Wabash Trace appeals.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

"The propriety of summary judgment is purely an issue of law which we review de novo on the record submitted and the law." Bonds v. Missouri Dep't of Mental Health, 887 S.W.2d 418, 421 (Mo.App.1994). We review the grant of summary judgment by looking to the entire record to determine whether there is any genuine issue of material fact and whether the moving party was entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Dial v. Lathrop R-II Sch. Dist., 871 S.W.2d 444, 446 (Mo. banc 1994). We view the record in the light most favorable to the party against whom summary judgment was entered, but will affirm if the judgment is sustainable as a matter of law under any legal theory. ITT Commercial Fin. Corp. v. Mid-America Marine Supply Corp., 854 S.W.2d 371, 376 (Mo. banc 1993).

III. THE RAILROAD'S INTEREST IN THE PROPERTY WAS AN EASEMENT WHICH WAS EXTINGUISHED UPON ABANDONMENT

Wabash Trace claims that Norfolk's 1995 quitclaim deed conveyed fee simple title to all three disputed tracts to it. Specifically, as to the two Bullock deeds, Wabash Trace argues that the two original deeds of conveyance simply provided that the land would revert to the "undersigned grantor" in case the construction of the railroad was abandoned. Wabash Trace asserts that, since the railroad was built, this condition of reverter was never fulfilled. Wabash Trace also argues that, while the Rogers deed does state it is only a determinable fee so long as the property is used for railroad purposes, that restriction is not controlling here because there is no evidence that the possibility of reverter was ever conveyed to or inherited by anyone, much less to Respondents in this case.

Wabash Trace's arguments are based on the premise that the three original deeds conveyed a fee simple title to the railroad which the railroad and its successors retained until the railroad formally disclaimed any interest in the right-of-way and passed its title to Wabash Trace through the 1995 quitclaim deed. Wabash Trace's arguments, however, ignore the long line of case law in Missouri addressing the types of deeds at issue here, and addressing how rights of ownership are determined once a railroad track has been abandoned. This analysis begins with an examination of the relevant statutes, which, both at the time of the deeds and now, provide that a railroad has the power:

To take and hold such voluntary grants of real estate and other property as shall be made to it to aid in the construction, maintenance and accommodation of its railroads; but the real estate received by voluntary grant shall be held and used for the purpose of such grant only. ⁴

The term "voluntary" grant has been construed to mean a conveyance without valuable consideration. Brown v. Weare, 348 Mo. 135, 152 S.W.2d 649, 653 (Mo.1941). If the conveyance was a voluntary grant, the effect of the statute was that the railroad acquired only an easement, no matter what interest the deed purported to convey. G.M. Morris Boat Co. v. Bishop, 631 S.W.2d 84, 87 (Mo.App.1982).

In applying this statute and in developing the common law governing the effect of conveyances of a strip of land to a railroad, the courts of this State have consistently looked at three factors to determine whether a deed of land to a railroad passes title to the railroad in fee simple, or grants merely an easement in favor of the railroad, subject to later reversion to the grantor or his heirs if use for railroad purposes later ceases. These factors are: (1) whether the deed includes language conveying a "right of way;" ⁵ (2) the amount of consideration; and (3) language in the deed limiting the use of the land for railroad purposes.

Factor (1)--use of words granting only a "right of way"--is not applicable here since none of the three deeds refer to a right of way. ⁶

The second factor the courts of this State examine is the consideration given by the railroad...